ARRSE have partnered with Armadillo Merino to bring you an ARRSE exclusive, generous discount offer on their full price range.
To keep you warm with the best of Merino gear, visit www.armadillomerino.co.uk and use the code: NEWARRSE40 at the checkout to get 40% off!
This superb deal has been generously offered to us by Armadillo Merino and is valid until midnight on the the 28th of February.

Officer entry

Swinger

I am about to start university, this september, and have also applied to join the TA.
I also wish, after I finish university, to apply to the Army as an officer, but I have a few questions first. Due to immaturity at school, I managed to achieve a huge 0 GCSE's, which is why I've had to take an access course to get into university. The problem is, after looking on the Army website, I've noticed that one of the requirements is 5 GCSE's at A-C, would me having a degree mean I would not need these GCSE's, or will I need to spend another year after Uni retaking them?

Swinger

Why are you wasting your time joining the TA if you wish to join the regular army as an officer? You would be much better advised to join your University Officer Training Corps, take the TCB, pass it, get commissioned in your final year and on graduating head off to RCB and Sandbags!

As to the academic quals, those are the minimum. However, NO ONE comes of the street (I stand to be corrected here) with just those 5 GCSEs and gets into Sandbags! The fact you don't have them is pretty irrelevent compared with your access course (equal to A levels) and your future good degree (minimum 2.2)!

There are plenty of officers in the regular army that wouldnt get into uni and have bad GCSEs and A level. There's alway room for academic under achieves, especial in the Royal Artilery and certain squadrons of the Household Cavalry Regiment. You don't seem to fit that mould!

Join the UOTC, get a good degree and providing you're not a knob jockey and pass RCB you'll do just fine!

LE

Swinger

Why are you wasting your time joining the TA if you wish to join the regular army as an officer? You would be much better advised to join your University Officer Training Corps, take the TCB, pass it, get commissioned in your final year and on graduating head off to RCB and Sandbags!

The TA will provide as good a lead in to a regular officer career as UOTC. Many would say that the experience of training and possibly deploying with a good TA unit, especially as it includes the opportunity to work with soldiers from a wide variety of academic backgrounds would be far more useful than time spend swanning around in 'Army Club'.

The bloke wants advice not facetious and inaccurate prejudices, your comments on the Royal Regiment and the HCav pretty much sum up the value of your post in this regard.

Quite true, however, UOTC is geared aroung the 33 week academic year and is not a major burden and places no call up problems for students.... Sorry PSI, I can't go to war in the sand pit, I've exams!

As a person who wants to be a regular army officer, this bod is much better advised to join UOTC than TA whilst at uni and you would realise that if you weren't an academic subnormal dropshort wannabe cav officer type!

Old-Salt

I am about to start university, this september, and have also applied to join the TA.
I also wish, after I finish university, to apply to the Army as an officer, but I have a few questions first. Due to immaturity at school, I managed to achieve a huge 0 GCSE's, which is why I've had to take an access course to get into university. The problem is, after looking on the Army website, I've noticed that one of the requirements is 5 GCSE's at A-C, would me having a degree mean I would not need these GCSE's, or will I need to spend another year after Uni retaking them?

You will need your 5 GCSEs, particularly the specified ones. You will also need the specified UCAS points: there are clearly exceptions to these rules, but you should be aware that the UCAS requirement is going to raise in the short-term: if you dont have the points but you get a 1st in Roket Science then all well and good but if you get a Pass in Tourism then things might not be on your side.

An alternative means of access is to join as a soldier and take your chances that the spark of leadership in you will be identified and your CO will advise you to apply for a commission.

So you can do this, then? I have been trying to decide wether or not to apply as a Soldier or Officer. I prefer the idea of gathering experience as a soldier and then applying for a commission. Anyone who's gone down this route, I welcome your comments or advice.

War Hero

If you're worrying about this question, you need to understand that to pass RCB and to start the commissioning course at RMAS you need no military experience whatsoever. We're not at the stage when you have to train yourself (at least not yet). The RCB is more interested in those with leadership potential / experience, maturity and breadth / depth of character. So being a trained TA soldier / officer cuts no ice whatsover. (Nothing wrong with TA training, but after 18months of RMAS and YO training, your non-TA peers will be at exactly the same level of skill as you.)

On the other hand, you're choosing a career and ought to do some research and spend some time with your prospective employer.

There's nothing wrong with joining the TA, but it won't directly influence the outcome of RCB. There is a risk that you will devote too much time to your TA training (because its fun) with the consequence that you might come across to RCB as a bit narrow in outlook and experience.

If you are genuinely interested in the Regular Army, join the UOTC. Its a better fit with your studies, you will do lots more extra-mural stuff like sports, adventure training and great parties. You will also have time to do other studenty things such as travel, join other societies etc etc that all add to your experience and depth of character.

In addition, there is far greater scope to visit Regular units as an individual PO. This will help in your selction of arm or service and also help you decide if you actually want to be a Regular Officer. (A regular unit in barracks is nothing like what you will ever see in the TA.)

Although you can in theory be called up if you are a student in the TA, being in full-time education is a cast-iron ground for exemption from call-out. This means that you are highly unlikely to be called up in the first place.

But at least the option is there if you are in the TA: you can go, if you want to and indicate to the chain of command that you'd like to. The same is not true for those in the OTC.

War Hero

If you want to learn about the Army, I recommend joining the TA, not the UOTC - I was in both for varying amounts of time and the UOTC was an almost complete waste (although I'm told it varies from UOTC to UOTC, so some better advice might come from the relevant forum). As Dr_Evil points out, being in full-time education will exempt you from call-up in 99.9% of cases (and if the 0.01% of cases when you aren't exempt, it means the bomb's gone off and, frankly, your degree's not going to be worth pursuing).

As for your educational background, I find it difficult to imagine the Army saying, "Well, your 2:1 in Biochemistry is all very well, but you haven't got a GCSE in English, so p*ss off", but the best people to ask will be RMAS themselves. Your local ACIO can contact them on your behalf (ask nicely).